retreads

[NJT 5573]

4 wheel, I called my tire rep at Bridgestone on this one.  I can't get that kind of mileage. He told me his low profile 24.5 M 726 EL could fall into that area. 1 inch of new rubber. Sleeper team for 4 years straight, run no mountains and haul light loads. He didn't see a problem with the recap either, says he sells the best casing. He said Bridgestone is close to having a 1 million mile tire casing. He wants us to run the 1 million within 6 years. We talked about casing value. He told me that there is a huge glut of low profile 24.5 casings in the Southwest United States and that the low profile 24.5 casing has no value... That tells me alot about the popularity of recaps with truckers in general. If caps are cost effective, why would used casings in the most popular size be worthless? Gee, I'm not running them because they are not cost effective for me and it looks like a landslide or is that landfill of votes the same way.

[Stan]

Bandag has always promoted their process as a cold process. This is copied directly from their site "New tread rubber is bonded to the casing at low temperatures to avoid stress and distortion."

Other recappers use a vulcanization process.